William Buckland (1784-1856) geologist

John van Wyhe, Fellow, National University of Singapore; Researcher, History & philosophy of science, Cambridge University.

William
Buckland is remembered as the man who, in 1824, identified the megalosaur on the basis
of a jawbone and other fossil remains found in Stonesfield, near Oxford. Buchland's
identification, which predated by nearly two decades Richard Owen's coinage of the word dinosaur
in 1842, was the first published description of a dinosaur.
Partly in response to the controversial
works of Cuvier, Buckland wrote Reliquiae Diluvianae
(1823) in which he argued that the evidence of geology alone demonstrated that
a great flood had covered the entire globe. This move helped to make geology
look more respectable in a religiously conservative England and perhaps to advance
Buckland's own career at Oxford by making geology appear to be a respectable
companion to the classics.

Further reading

Buckland, W. Reliquiae Diluvianae; or, Observations on the Organic Remains
Contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel, and on other Geological Phenomena,
Attesting the Action of an Universal Deluge (1823).

Buckland, W. "Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil
Lizard of Stonesfield." Transactions of the Geological
Society of London, series 2, vol. 1: 390-396
(1824).

Rudwick, M. The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge
among Gentlemanly Specialists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Rudwick, M. The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of
Paleontology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.

Rupke, N. A. The Great Chain of History: William Buckland and the English
School of Geology 1814-1849. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.